


Foresight

by Kevin_Mask (Nikolai_Knight)



Category: Kinnikuman Nisei | Ultimate Muscle
Genre: Brotherly Bonding, Friendship, Gen, Happy Ending, Pranks and Practical Jokes, Tricksters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-15
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-23 17:13:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30058809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nikolai_Knight/pseuds/Kevin_Mask
Summary: Mantaro convinces Terry the Kid that he can see the future.
Relationships: Kinniku Mantaro & Terry the Kid
Comments: 4
Kudos: 5





	Foresight

“Ya ain’t psychic!”

Kid crossed his arms, while a sharp pout broke over his features. He sat on the bench beside the ring, where a couple of their peers grappled and tumbled upon the canvas, and kept his eyes focused in a deathly glare at an unimportant spot on the tiled floor. A red hue swept over his cheek, as his nostrils flared and muscles tightened. The harsh stadium lights made his face look all the sharper, especially as he kept his head low and back hunched, and his temper was at distinct odds with the laughter and gossip and bickering of their teammates all around.

Mantaro swung out his legs beside Kid, as they sat next to one another, and leaned back on his hands, while he stared up at the stadium ceiling. A bright smile brought lines to the corner of his eyes, which deepened with every chuckle and provided a bright glow, and he winked to Gazelleman – who came over to pull up a folding chair beside him – before biting into his cheek to hold back loud laughter. Kid refused to make any eye-contact with either man.

“I can prove it,” said Mantaro.

Seiuchin plopped down beside them. The bench lifted high on Kid’s end, with Mantaro vaguely losing some balance in the middle, and soon settled down again once Seiuchin found a comfortable spot that helped better distribute the weight. A trainer yelled at the four of them from a far corner, but his words were unintelligible and he was soon distracted by a commotion caused by a few fans trying to sneak into practise. Gazelleman scratched at his head, as he looked between the petulant Kid and relaxed Mantaro. He asked with a curious tone:

“How on Earth will you prove a thing like that?”

“Easy,” chirped Mantaro. “I can see the future, right? It’s how I know that Kevin is going to be exactly fourteen minutes late. That means he should come through the doors in . . . oh, I don’t know . . . three minutes time? You can keep an eye on the clock above the door.”

“Kevin’s never late,” said Kid.

“Well, gosh,” muttered Seiuchin. “He’s definitely late today!”

Mantaro kept his gaze forward. The other three shared a look, before turning their heads in unison to the clock above the main door . . . it ticked by the seconds, as a strange silence befell them, and each one seemed to move their eyes in time with the second hand. Mantaro ran his hand over his face, almost in a nonchalant manner, but the fingers hid the grin that threatened to expose the truth of his claims. He waited as patiently as possible.

The clock continued to tick with three sets of eager eyes upon it, but – as soon as the three promised minutes passed them by – Kid yelled out: _‘ha, I knew you weren’t psychic_ ’. Mantaro barely opened his mouth to counter the accusation, when in burst Kevin Mask through the front doors with his shirt untucked and a piece of toast in one hand He was frantic, with his other hand carrying a backpack that should have been on his back, and his leather jacket was dangling about his elbows. It was like he half-dressed in a hurry and ran out of the house in a panic.

“Warsman is going to be _pissed_ ,” said Mantaro.

Warsman was already at the door. He had a stopwatch in hand, with the other on his hip, and he immediately chastised Kevin Mask with cold and loud words, while Kevin simply bashfully scratched at his neck and mumbled incoherent apologies. Warsman practically dragged Kevin by his collar towards the weight-rooms. Kid stared with an open mouth. He practically gaped, with his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water, and Seiuchin raised an eyebrow towards Gazelleman, who raised one back and matched his expression with a shrug of his shoulders.

“That don’t prove nothing,” murmured Kid.

“You don’t sound too sure.”

“Yeah, well, o’ course Warsman is pissed. He’s a strict trainer!”

“Okay, well, how about this? I can tell that they’ll go straight onto weights, at which point Warsman is going to _scream_ at Kevin . . . I’m betting that it’s because Kevin is going to drop a weight on his foot. It’s a heavy weight, too; I hope it doesn’t break a bone.”

“You’re just makin’ all this up!”

A loud scream echoed out from the weight room. It was almost ear-piercing, so that all the students in the stadium stopped, and even those on the ring froze mid-stance to stare in the direction of the agonised cries. Robin was the first to respond. He stood near a group of new Justice Chojin, who were about the same age as Mantaro and his friends when they first attended the Hercules Factory, and – telling them to continue exercises without him – ran at full-speed straight into the weight room, where he slammed the door behind him. Mantaro laughed:

“Oh, Kevin and Robin are _so_ going to fight!”

The students were preparing to train again, but this time a series of angry insults were batted around at such a volume that those nearest the weight-rooms winced. A few bangs betrayed the fact that items were being thrown . . . weights, dumbbells, even a bench . . . Robin Mask stormed out with hands clenched at his sides. The vein in his neck bulged with his racing heart, and he muttered a little too loudly about ‘ungrateful sons’. Kid gasped. He spun around on the bench to face Mantaro, and leaned close enough for even his breath to be felt. Kid rushed out:

“Okay, how’d you know all this?”

“I told you: I’m psychic.” Mantaro sighed. “I only told you my secret to help you out, because . . . well . . . you’re my best friend, Kid! If you don’t go back to Texas for the holidays, you’ll regret it and you’ll have to live with that guilt forever. There’s something bad going to happen, but only _you_ can stop it from happening! Please, it’s only a few weeks . . . just go, Kid.”

“W-Well, my mom did want t’ see me . . .”

“See! Look, if I’m wrong, you get a nice vacation back home, right?” Mantaro smiled. “If I’m _right_ , though, you’ll have to live knowing that you could have done something and chose not to do anything . . . just think about it, okay? It’s up to you, really.”

Kid scratched at the back of his head. He cast an eye towards the weight rooms, where Warsman limped outside with an arm around Kevin’s shoulders, and there was a thick bandage around his exposed foot, which was swollen to almost twice its usual size. The clock above the doors ticked by the passing minutes, as the delays in training only seemed to increase. Kid let loose a shuddered sigh. He cast his eyes between his three friends, before he ran his hand over his face and let out a loud groan. The three said nothing as he stood and slapped his thighs.

“Okay,” said Kid. “I’ll go.”

He quickly snatched at his training bag, and sprinted towards the doors, as Buffaloman screamed after him. The words fell flat, as he was already outside before the chastisement had finished. It left the three friends alone together in the stadium. Mantaro whooped. He whisked out his phone and rapidly text with expert fingers, and ignored how both Seiuchin and Gazelleman stared at him with narrowed eyes and expectant gazes. He was already in the process of sending the message when he finally noticed them . . . he did a quick double-take, as he uttered: ‘ _what_ ’?

“Okay,” said Gazelleman. “ _How_ did you do that?”

“Do what?”

“You know what! You’re not psychic, Mantaro.”

Mantaro chuckled. He winked at them and raised a finger, with the gesture ambiguous enough to silence Seiuchin and antagonise Gazelleman, and this time the two shared an exasperated expression, before spinning around to face Mantaro in a direct fashion. Mantaro paled. He slid his phone away, and hooked his hands behind his neck, while he tried to avoid their gazes with a suspiciously innocent smile. It failed to quite meet his eyes, which still twinkled with a little under the harsh lights of the stadium. Seiuchin nudged him in his side.

“Come on,” said Seiuchin. “You can tell us, Bro.”

“Well, it _was_ pretty easy,” chirped Mantaro. “Kevin uses his watch as an alarm, but he takes it off when he goes swimming in the evening as part of his training regime. I just snuck into the locker-room and changed the time. I set it back by fourteen minutes; he’s always on time _dead_ to the minute, so I knew exactly how long he’d be late for training! That was easy.”

“And the rest?”

“He always starts with weights, and Warsman always stands to his left to spot him, so I tampered with the weights so that the left side was super loose. It would obviously fall on his foot, so he’d yell out _super_ loud, and Robin would be bound to enter, because he’d be worried about his friend and want to check on him. I told Robin yesterday that Meat wouldn’t be in today, so we needed an extra teacher to chaperone. Meat may have got given the wrong class schedule, so . . .”

“And you knew that Robin and Kevin would argue . . .”

“When _don’t_ they argue?” Mantaro laughed. “It took a bit of planning, but two birds and one stone! It means now that I can use Kid’s apartment while he’s gone, so I can ‘entertain’ Jacqueline . . . ugh, it’s no fun at mine with Meat as a chaperone, and no fun at hers with Ikemen continuously checking in on us, so – yeah – this way is much better!”

Gazelleman dropped his head into his hand, while Seiuchin let loose a roaring laugh that broke across the stadium and brought them as the focus of attention. The laughter broke lines about Seiuchin’s face, giving him a warm glow, and the sound was so gentle – so sincere – that Gazelleman’s lips twitched despite his attempt to force a scowl. It led to a softer atmosphere about the stadium, as shouts and grunts turned to whispers and cheers, and soon the younger generation gained a new focus, a new strength . . . as if Seiuchin’s happiness inspired them.

“He’s an evil genius,” chuckled Gazelleman.

“It’s a shame he can’t put this energy into training.”

Mantaro jumped onto his feet. He made a peace-sign about his eyes, and winked towards his two friends, before he snatched up his coat and scarf. They were pulled on with record speed, as he ignored the cries from his teachers that training was far from finished, and his gaze continually shot towards the main doors, with his body twitching in its direction. He was about to run, with his body jolting violently forward, when Seiuchin grabbed his wrist and asked:

“Where are you going, Bro?”

A beautiful smile swept over Mantaro. He clapped his hands together, while a glowing blush overtook his cheeks, and he swayed from side to side, as he closed eyes seemed to watch a miraculous sight before his eyes to which only he could lay witness. Gazelleman rolled his eyes, even though his smile never once left him, and muttered: _‘the idiot is in love’_. Mantaro nodded in agreement, as he clasped his hand to his heart and chirped out:

“ _I_ have a date at Kid’s place!"


End file.
